Tokyo Station Takes Money From Thin Air to Fund Redevelopment

How do you literally make money out of thin air? That’s what the owners of Tokyo Station have done in funding a ¥50 billion ($626 million) makeover of their historic rail hub in the heart of some of the capital’s most expensive real estate.

While the venerable building’s towering neighbors have strained to add extra floor space to help finance redevelopment, the station’s owners came up with a complementary solution to fund their construction needs: They sold the rights to the airspace above it.

In doing so, the company has been able to take the landmark station back almost a century to its original design in 1914 at a time when gleaming new skyscrapers are giving the neighborhood an increasingly futuristic feel.